“It is so boring”

The blog below is a response to a NYT article titled:

“How will America recover from a broken school year“

As an educator for over forty years–a teacher, a principal, a professor—I will act as the 800 pound gorilla in the closet. Yes, no doubt students suffered social, emotional, and intellectual loss from a year of uneven schooling. But, let us be candid that the form of schooling many are lamenting was a century old model of teaching and learning that aimed at achieving institutional goals—custodial care and credentialing–but were far from the engaged learning environments school officials and parents like to believe were happening on a daily basis in our schools. I had hoped, actually still hope, that this year long break from our factory style model of schooling would motivate school administrators to rethink and redesign a model of schooling that lived up to educational goals and values written into their school mission statements. I understand the urgency of parents wanting to get their children back to structured educational experience. At the same time, however, we as educators, need to redesign our turn of the century schooling platforms that place an emphasis on experiences that are truly educational, rather than a grammar of schooling that in my grandson’s words is so boring.